So Dark Horse is going to release a trade featuring the Usagi/TMNT crossovers. I'm wondering how IDW factors in here? I know Stan owns Usagi and can take the character to whichever publisher he feels like. But IDW does have license from Viacom to publish TMNT. Is IDW collaborating with Dark Horse in some way to make this happen or did Dark Horse just have to go to Viacom?

It was part of our overall agreement when we decided to do the new TMNT/Usagi book.

1. Have you ever in your dreams considered asking someone like Grant Morrison, Gerard Way, or Frank Miller to write a story/short story for IDW TMNT? Is it just so clearly out of the question or possibly budget for you to have bothered considering it? I guess I'm being sort of specific while also asking generally. (Bill Sienkiewicz was sort of along these lines, in my mind, btw)

2. Do you know anything about the Mirage TMNT Cover-page collection hardcover that kept getting pushed back? To be clear, the book that was going to collect a bunch of the old school Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman covers into an oversized hardcover. I can't seem to find it online anymore and am wondering if it was cancelled.

3. Nate from IDW Limited recently came by to ask if there were any particular, future products we'd like to see. So I was just wondering, is there any type of special edition collection you've always wanted to see for IDW TMNT?

4. And just to throw you a curveball - What's one fact about IDW TMNT that would possibly surprise fans?

If you can't answer these, or need to come back to some later, I understand. Thanks for your time, once again!

Johnny

1. No, not really. Budget pretty much immediately puts those guys out of the picture. And honestly, I feel like they would overshadow the actual characters a bit.

2. I think that book has been reconfigured into a different book. But I don't want to say anything concrete, as i'm not sure on the details. Sorry!

3. No, I'm happy with the IDW Collections!

4. Hmm... that's a good question. I think I mentioned this a while back, but it's the first thing that comes to mind: we toyed with the idea of Leo actually being Shredder's son way back when we were planning City Fall.

2. Do you know anything about the Mirage TMNT Cover-page collection hardcover that kept getting pushed back? To be clear, the book that was going to collect a bunch of the old school Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman covers into an oversized hardcover. I can't seem to find it online anymore and am wondering if it was cancelled.

Hey, Bobby. AlZarkovski posted an image from an upcoming issue that happens to have Irma in it. I noticed it says her name is Langinstein. My question is, does the character list actually say she's named that?

See, there was a thread a while back discussing where the name came from. Nobody could figure out and when David Wise was asked, he said he never even heard of it. The conclusion people came to was that it had to be something the internet fanbase came up with.

The infestation 2 story builds on the Lovecraft mythos, which to knowledge is public domain and there's no ties to any other copyrighted material. So it's considered canon, right? You could in theory build on it if you wanted.

The X-Files crossover is contradicted by the Ghosbusters crossover, simply by having an interdimension plot. So it's non-canon then?

Then there's the Ghostbusters crossovers themselves. While they are certainly canon, I noticed that references to them in the main series are kept vague. There's literally only a mention of "Ghost Guys" and an unnamed psychiatrist. I assumed it was done this way just in case they had to be retconned due to copyright issues, would that be correct?

And of course Batman. The first crossover was kind kind vague about wheter or not it really was part of the IDW-verse but the second one is very obviously not. I know IDW never considered it canon, I just wondered if you told DC they could go nuts the second time around?

Finally, the BTAS/Nick crossover. Seeing how it was a tie-in to a cartoon that ended decades ago, and another one that had less than a year left, would you say it fits in with canon? Or at least the canon of the Nick tie-in comics?

The infestation 2 story builds on the Lovecraft mythos, which to knowledge is public domain and there's no ties to any other copyrighted material. So it's considered canon, right? You could in theory build on it if you wanted.

The X-Files crossover is contradicted by the Ghosbusters crossover, simply by having an interdimension plot. So it's non-canon then?

Then there's the Ghostbusters crossovers themselves. While they are certainly canon, I noticed that references to them in the main series are kept vague. There's literally only a mention of "Ghost Guys" and an unnamed psychiatrist. I assumed it was done this way just in case they had to be retconned due to copyright issues, would that be correct?

And of course Batman. The first crossover was kind kind vague about wheter or not it really was part of the IDW-verse but the second one is very obviously not. I know IDW never considered it canon, I just wondered if you told DC they could go nuts the second time around?

Finally, the BTAS/Nick crossover. Seeing how it was a tie-in to a cartoon that ended decades ago, and another one that had less than a year left, would you say it fits in with canon? Or at least the canon of the Nick tie-in comics?

Yes, I was thinking the same thing, with some of these. Like why are some crossovers canon, and others not?

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My top 10 "never been made" figures that I wanna see are:

Hey, Bobby. AlZarkovski posted an image from an upcoming issue that happens to have Irma in it. I noticed it says her name is Langinstein. My question is, does the character list actually say she's named that?

See, there was a thread a while back discussing where the name came from. Nobody could figure out and when David Wise was asked, he said he never even heard of it. The conclusion people came to was that it had to be something the internet fanbase came up with.

I'm no help here. There's no last name for her listed on Nickelodeon's official character list, and I don't think that was in Tom's script, so you'll have to attribute that to Dave here, who I don't think has any special info.

The infestation 2 story builds on the Lovecraft mythos, which to knowledge is public domain and there's no ties to any other copyrighted material. So it's considered canon, right? You could in theory build on it if you wanted.

The X-Files crossover is contradicted by the Ghosbusters crossover, simply by having an interdimension plot. So it's non-canon then?

Then there's the Ghostbusters crossovers themselves. While they are certainly canon, I noticed that references to them in the main series are kept vague. There's literally only a mention of "Ghost Guys" and an unnamed psychiatrist. I assumed it was done this way just in case they had to be retconned due to copyright issues, would that be correct?

And of course Batman. The first crossover was kind kind vague about wheter or not it really was part of the IDW-verse but the second one is very obviously not. I know IDW never considered it canon, I just wondered if you told DC they could go nuts the second time around?

Finally, the BTAS/Nick crossover. Seeing how it was a tie-in to a cartoon that ended decades ago, and another one that had less than a year left, would you say it fits in with canon? Or at least the canon of the Nick tie-in comics?

1. Yeah, Infestation is canon, no reason why we couldn't return to it if we wanted.

2. If I recall correctly the X-files crossover was negated at the end of the overall Conspiracy event.

3. Yeah, exactly, just makes things easier on our end. If we lost the Ghostbusters license before the TMNT one, this way we could continue to reprint the TMNT story without having to consult Sony.

4. Basically early on in the DC Batman/TMNT stories we decided to keep things flexible and non-canon as DC wanted to do things that couldn't really be placed perfectly into our timeline. IDW/my contribution was largely the same for both: giving some basic reference for our world and playing middle man for Nickelodeon approvals. They had the same amount of creative freedom in both.

5. I think I only really have the authority to say what's canon in the IDW TMNT universe... when it comes to the cartoons for both TMNT and BTAS, it would need to go to people way over my head.

But of course I was reading the Universe line. General Ch'rell. Oh my god .

Were Kleve's injuries eventually healed with Ooze? Because they seemed to have gone away pretty fast.

I realized an interesting angle to Kleve's plan to assassinate Ma'riell.

Of course he wanted her deposed somehow so Ch'rell could be reinstated as the Utroms leader and reignite the war (somehow forgetting that the Utroms aren't even remotely prepared for such an event and that the vast majority of them aren't soldiers, so they wouldn't stand a chance).

But...Ma'riell is the only family Ch'rell has left. Krang being gone would be enough of a 'situation' with Ch'rell on its own, but his sister's death would have the potential to push him off the edge. He would have lost the last two Utroms that he loved in some way or another, giving him all the reason to call for vengeance. Was that the angle Kleve was going for when he wanted to continue the war? By manipulating his preferred leader into it by removing his final close relationship?
Oh and did he plan for the chance that Ch'rell finds out he masterminded his sister's assassination, successfully or not? Or was he just thinking so rashly that he didn't consider that possibility and the consequences that would come with it?

All in all, I do like how it was the two female leaders and a teenage boy who made peace as quickly as they did. Especially when female characters within each of their species is dreadfully lacking. Ma'riell may not have wanted to be the leader of the Utroms, but she's doing a great job.

But of course I was reading the Universe line. General Ch'rell. Oh my god .

Were Kleve's injuries eventually healed with Ooze? Because they seemed to have gone away pretty fast.

I realized an interesting angle to Kleve's plan to assassinate Ma'riell.

Of course he wanted her deposed somehow so Ch'rell could be reinstated as the Utroms leader and reignite the war (somehow forgetting that the Utroms aren't even remotely prepared for such an event and that the vast majority of them aren't soldiers, so they wouldn't stand a chance).

But...Ma'riell is the only family Ch'rell has left. Krang being gone would be enough of a 'situation' with Ch'rell on its own, but his sister's death would have the potential to push him off the edge. He would have lost the last two Utroms that he loved in some way or another, giving him all the reason to call for vengeance. Was that the angle Kleve was going for when he wanted to continue the war? By manipulating his preferred leader into it by removing his final close relationship?
Oh and did he plan for the chance that Ch'rell finds out he masterminded his sister's assassination, successfully or not? Or was he just thinking so rashly that he didn't consider that possibility and the consequences that would come with it?

All in all, I do like how it was the two female leaders and a teenage boy who made peace as quickly as they did. Especially when female characters within each of their species is dreadfully lacking. Ma'riell may not have wanted to be the leader of the Utroms, but she's doing a great job.

Haha, I think you've probably thought about this more than we have. In terms of the injury, it was a cut to the arm, nothing too major for Kleeve, though if I was on top of my continuity game, yeah, there should have been a cut there or bandage in #22.

I'm not sure Paul realized the sibling relation, so probably didn't factor into the writing. I didn't think it was necessary to get into in the page space we had-- the story works without that knowledge. But that doesn't mean your theories aren't possible!